Background: Psychological stress is known to aggravate autoimmune skin diseases such as vitiligo, psoriasis and alopecial areata by altering the cellular constituents of the immune system. The skin appendages function dually as prominent target sand sources of the peripheral corticotropin-releasing hormone–proopiomelanocortin (CRH-POMC) axis. Objective: we examined the expression level of CRH and CRHR-1 in vitiligo, a well-known stress-related autoimmune skin disease, as well as detecting psychological stress in the last 6 months prior to biopsies. Patients and methods: Thirty vitiligo patients and thirty normal controls were collected from outpatient clinic based on their clinical condition. We measured CRH and CRHR-1 mRNA expression by quantitative RT-PCR lesions and control skin and detected psychological stress using Social Readjustment Stress Scale. Results: A significant increase of CRH and CRHR-1 expression was observed and both were significantly correlated with psychological stress in vitiligo patients. Conclusion: we suggest that CRH and CRHR-1 are altered by psychological stress and play an important role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo.